today, as I was making my lunch, I was reminded of my dad…
he loved sardines and would often make a sardine sandwich for his lunch when he was home…
when he worked he had a cheese sandwich every single day🤪…
back to the sardines, lol…
he would smash them up in a bowl with a fork and a bit of the oil from the container and then put the mix onto white bread…
I mashed mine up and then topped up some premium crackers with the mixture… tasty and went well with the cucumber, onion, tomato salad which I also made…
today, we celebrated one of our group’s birthdays by spending the afternoon at Pine Ridge Hollow…
we drove out in a hybrid electric car and spent a couple of hours wandering through all the shops…
we followed that up with an excellent dinner at the restaurant…
our meal started with beet chips and goat cheese ranch dipping sauce, oh my, so tasty…
four members of the group had pickerel piccata while I had the lamb shank…
my lamb was braised and flame-grilled, came with tabbouleh, fennel slaw, whipped labneh, and a drizzle of chermoula… I had to look up a number of the items on Google but they made a delightful combination;-)…
everyone’s meal was delicious and just a touch different than expected…
the birthday “girl” had schmoo, while others enjoyed the frozen lemon meringue…
we conscripted a fellow restaurant member as they were leaving to take our traditional photo…’you can see we were having a lot of fun;-)…
a leisurely drive home ended another of our special days…
it was a hot one yesterday… spent most of it in the garden…
started out with breakfast and a book while it was still cool…
then I took a break and trimmed virginia creeper which had gone crazy with the rain we’ve had recently…
after half an hour I’d filled my bucket between the garage door, entry pergola, and hose area…
back to relaxing;-)… after lunch and a rest in the lounge chair, the time came to move into the house to cool off for a while…
brought in all the cushions as there was a threat of a thunderstorm…
I watched an F1 qualifying session and headed back outside, where there had not been a storm or any rain, lol… had a wander around the vegetable garden and spotted the first pea-pod…
more reading on the deck, followed by a lovely steak for dinner…
finished my book and watched a bit of tv before bed;-)…
excited this morning to spot the strawberry that was ripe enough to eat… and pleased that the birds and/or squirrels hadn’t beaten me to it…
I did paint those rocks red and put them around the plant to discourage thieves, lol… maybe they worked…
the strawberry was delicious;-)…
this plant was purchased two years ago and lives in a pot over the summer…in the fall it is transplanted back into the bathtub garden to overwinter;-)…
Friday was a delightful day… the sun shone and the temperature rose to 25°C…
throughout the day, I prepped for a dinner party… between organizing and setting the table on the deck, there were plenty of opportunities to sit, read, and relax…
preparing a space or food for special people is always enjoyable for me as I think about those who I am doing this work for and how important they are to me…
for this gathering, it was mainly about making the space comfortable and considering what dishes we would need as the food was being picked up from a Charleswood Rotary fundraiser…
they provided a whole lobster, baked potato, fresh bun, coleslaw, brownie, small bottle of wine, with a bib and a lobster fork;-)… each person received a shopping bag with all of the goodies in it… I added a few fixings for the potatoes, warm facecloths with lemon for our fingers, and garlic butter in warmers…
once the food was warmed up, we had a lesson in how to eat the whole crustacean… I was a bit slow, lol, so had to keep having information repeated…
the weather was perfect, well, except that the wind kept blowing out some of the butter warmers… lots of conversation and story telling kept us busy throughout the meal…
my housemate took the requisite group photo which he was happy to do (and not be in) before we spent time around the pond…
happily, the fish came out for a short visit before returning to their favourite spot under the bridge…
and before you knew it, everyone headed off into the sunset;-)…
quite awhile ago the last of the plants made their way into the garden, either in pots, or the ground…
I’ve been watching daily to see if things are sprouting out of the planters… so far, three of the dahlias have popped up, but one has not, and it was the one I was most looking forward to, lol…
the strawberry that had gone into the ground in the fall has moved into a pot and has quite a few blossoms on it… as well as the beginnings of berries…
I painted rocks red to hopefully keep the birds from eating the berries before we get to them…
apparently the birds will go for the red rocks and decide that red things aren’t worth it, lol…
herbiggirlpants 